‘I am alive and well’: Oscar night’s overlooked foul-up
If any Oscars moment was nearly as anticipated as Sunday’s best picture award, it may have been the tribute to artists who died in 2016.
This was, after all, the year we lost Gene Wilder, Carrie Fisher and her mother, Debbie Reynolds, then Bill Paxton on the eve of the awards, a seemingly endless list.
And like that other ceremony, the memorial montage did not pass without a disaster — even if the botching of the night’s top honor stole most of the shame.
As Jennifer Aniston choked up and Sara Bareilles serenaded, the names of those lost flashed across the screen.
In Australia, some noticed one living among the faces of the dead.
As the SBS Movies editor noted, that was a photo of Jan Chapman — who lives in Australia — next to the name of Janet Patterson, an Oscar-nominated costume designer who died of cancer in October.
“I am alive and well and an active producer,” Chapman — who lists critically acclaimed “The Babadook” on a long film résumé — wrote to Variety after the ceremony. “I was devastated by the use of my image in place of my great friend and longtime collaborator.”
In fact, Chapman told Variety, she had been worried about just such a mistake, and had asked Patterson’s…